Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American businessman who was

the Republican Party's nominee for President of the United States in the 2012 election. Before
his presidential bid, he served as the 70th Governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007.
Raised in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, by his parents Lenore and George W. Romney, Mitt
Romney spent two and a half years in France as a Mormon missionary starting in 1966. He
married Ann Davies in 1969, with whom he has had five children. By 1971, Romney had
participated in the political campaigns of both his parents. In that year, he earned a Bachelor of
Arts at Brigham Young and in 1975, a joint Juris Doctor and Master of Business
Administration at Harvard. Romney then entered the management consulting industry and in
1977 he secured a position at Bain & Company. Later serving as its chief executive officer, he
helped lead the company out of financial crisis. In 1984, he cofounded and led the spin-off
company Bain Capital, a highly profitable private equity investment firm that became one of
the largest of its kind in the nation. Active in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
Romney served during his business career as the bishop of his ward (head of his local
congregation) and then stake president in his home area near Boston. After stepping down from
Bain Capital and his local leadership role in the church, he ran as the Republican candidate in
the1994 Massachusetts election for U.S. Senate. Upon losing to longtime incumbent Ted
Kennedy, he resumed his position at Bain Capital. Years later, a successful stint as President and
CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Winter Olympics led to a relaunch of
his political career.
Elected Governor of Massachusetts in 2002, Romney helped develop and enact into law
the Massachusetts health care reform legislation, the first of its kind in the nation, which
provided near-universal health insurance access through state-level subsidies and individual
mandates to purchase insurance. He also presided over the elimination of a projected $1.2
1.5 billion deficit through a combination of spending cuts, increased fees, and the closure of
corporate tax loopholes. Romney did not seek re-election in 2006, instead focusing on his
campaign for the Republican nomination in the 2008 U.S. presidential election. He won
several primaries and caucuses but lost out to the eventual nominee, Senator John McCain. His
considerable net worth, estimated in 2012 at $190250 million, helped finance his political
campaigns prior to 2012.
The Presidential Campaign
Romney won the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, thereby becoming the first Mormon
to be a major party presidential nominee. He was defeated by
incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama in the November 2012 general election, losing
by a 332206 electoral college margin and by 5147 percent in the popular vote. On June 2,
2011, Romney formally announced the start of his campaign. Speaking on a farm in Stratham,
New Hampshire, he focused on the economy and criticized President Obama's handling of it. He
said, "In the campaign to come, the American ideals of economic freedom and opportunity need
a clear and unapologetic defense, and I intend to make it because I have lived it
Romney raised $56 million during 2011, more than double the amount raised by any of his
Republican opponents, and refrained from spending his own money on the campaign. He
initially pursued a low-key, low-profile strategy